Year: 2009

Insect Food

About two weeks ago I got two insect bites on both sides of my right leg just above the knee. They itched, swelled and oozed clear stuff, staying that way for about three days until a scab formed. I’ve never reacted to mosquito bites that way, so I guessed they were from a spider, but whatever they were from they were unpleasant.

Then a week ago I got bit 4 times. Back of the right side of my neck, about four inches further down on my back, near the waist on the left side and on my left ankle. I don’t feel the initial bite, but then I’ll notice something itching and scratch a bump.

Those four had just about cleared up when on Monday morning I had an itchy bump on my left forearm. Then later that morning I noticed an itch under my left arm and then one further down the back on the same side.

It is just me, Donna hasn’t been bothered a bit. They could only be coming from a couple places, my dresser or I’m getting bit each time we venture into Hitchcock Woods. My plan of attack to combat this issue was to wait until I had had been bitten enough that my body developed an immunity to what ever was feeding on my, but it didn’t seem to be working. So last night my wife saiid let’s take everything out of my dresser and wash it. Then in the morning you can spray the drawers and everything down with some bug spray.

Washed, sprayed, replaced, we’ll see how it works out.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 283

Black Gum Pond

Black Gum PondWalked by this pond on our way into Hitchcock Woods yesterday.

The two caches we hid yesterday were published (listed on geocaching.com and announcing emails sent out) a little before 9:00 PM last night and in less than 12 hours both were found.

I checked the site at mid day and “Out West” was logged with a FTF at 7:50 this morning. The same cacher logged “Jump At Your Own Risk” as a second to find, some one had beat them to it, and they wondered aloud in their log how they could have possibly missed each other.

The answer came this evening when the FTF of “Jump” logged in. They went out hunting as soon as they got the email last night. Now technically you are not supposed to be in the woods after dark, but that is not what was so wrong about this person caching at 10 o’clock at night, it was the fact that at that time Aiken was in the middle of a big ol’ thunderstorm. To quote from his log: “with the lightning flashing so much it was like hiking with a strobelight on!”

Such is the lure of being the First To Find a cache for some people.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 281

Tim’s Crossing

Tim's CrossingWe went for a hike in the woods this morning real early to beat the heat and to be home before Stage 1 of Le Tour started at 8:30AM.

This objective was to retrieve the small cache, “Jump At Your Own Risk,” we placed last week and move it to a different spot in the woods. We also wanted to place cache #2. The second one is titled “Out West” because we placed them in the western part of the woods and it is filled with some of the inexpensive souvenirs we brought back from our trip out west last April.

Yesterday evening we needed something to watch on TV so I poked around on Encore & Starz that came with our Tour de France digital package and found the third Pirate movie on one of the channels. When I first attempted to watch this movie back at the end 2007 I could only stomach 19 minutes of it. In the back of my mind I have always wondered had I bailed too early on it because people said it didn’t get good until Captain Jack Sparrow made his entrance. Wonder no more. We came in somewhere near the middle of the movie and lasted about 5 minutes. What a waste.

To make up for it this afternoon we watched the one and only TDPM on our copy of the DVD.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 280

Three Left

Rat ToesI’m trying real hard not to eat the last three.

They should be worried too, today I ate the chocolate chip cookies that were meant for our neighbor’s birthday.

In honor of American Independence Day we watched a bike race in France, but to make up for it we had grilled hot dogs for dinner.

If you have any doubts that the gene pool isn’t too shallow, just go and read a few pages of The Customer Is Not Always Right. Here is a short and sweet one:

The Joy Of (Repeat) Checks
Computer Repair | Monticello, MN, USA
Me: “Sir, your computer is all ready to go. We got all the viruses off of it.’
Customer: “Question: do you get viruses from looking at porno sites?”
Me: “Yes sir, the majority of those sites contain viruses.”
Customer: “…hmm…well then, I’ll probably be back here soon.”

Be sure and at least read the ones under the column headed Popular Quotes.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 280

93,000 Empty Seats

93,000 Empty SeatsWhile circling the Lowes Motor Speedway loop road looking for the registration building, the Emperor rolled past the 93,000 mile mark.

Today’s mission was a resounding success. We spent the morning watching all variations of cars race around 3/4 of the big oval and a t-shaped infield course at the Speedway. Lunch was a taste bud tantalizing mixture of red beans and rice with andouille for me and stuffed shrimp for Donna. That was after our appetizers of Crawdaddy Fondue Dip for her and Rat Toes for me (don’t worry, I saved you some Mark.) We found some nice light hikers for Donna that were cheaper than expected and we snagged three caches (1 at the race track and 2 near the mall.)

I even have the film I kiddingly promised, but it is so lame I won’t post it. I decided to use the camera and take a short video of our friends Miatas as they went by. The movie consists of about 3 seconds of cars flashing by and then the next 12 seconds are of my (and Donna’s) feet and legs as we walk away from the fence. I forgot to push the shutter a second time to stop the movie…

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 279

Sick & Tired of Feeling Sick & Tired

We are packing up our cough medicine, decongestants, expectorants and throat lozenges and going on a day trip. We have been threatening to go to the Concord Mills Mall for several weeks now and it is high time we did.

Donna needs a new pair of hiking boots, so a trip to the Bass Pro Shop is in order. We’ve both had a hankering for the spicy food at Razzoo’s just across the parking lot from the BPS. As an extra incentive Clunk (or is it Thunk?) is racing his Miata, AKA POS, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway at NASA Firecracker Run. We are going through geocaching withdrawal too.

So we are loading up the Miata. Film at Eleven.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 277

Book of Faces

About a year and a half ago a friend, about the only I keep in contact with (if by contact you count exchanging Christmas cards*) asked me to check out his new Facebook page. Turns out to see anything on anyone’s Facebook page you have to join. So join I did. I looked at his page.

*Actually it is more like our wives sharing cards.

My page just sat there until a month or so ago when a couple of wives from the Miata Club decided to get an FB page. We became “friends.” Then a CD Swapper from like a half dozen years ago sends a friends request. She is followed in short order by someone who I may or may not remember from high school, Donna’s globetrotting State Department operative and her youngest brother.

I need the Facebook For Dummies book*. My “wall” is filled with constant patter of my new friends and photos and games? and gifts? and what all. But the only time I look at my wall (or anybody else’s wall for that matter) is when I get a friend request.

*When I typed that I have no idea if there actually was such a book. I suspected there was because there is a book in the ‘for Dummies’ series for everything. Probably one called Scratching Your Ass for Dummies (but I ain’t looking on Amazon for that one.) Well, sure enough there is one.

So I’m not much of a FB friend other than I’m a sucker to be people’s friends thereby helping them inflate their friend count giving them a greater sense of being popular. Every time I do log in to Facebook I get a string of people who I should be friends with, but I don’t know any of them (and the ones with slightly familiar names invariably don’t have a photo so how can I tell if I know them.)

Tonight I got one from Mr. Eyepulp himself, Andrew Hughes. Andrew is a fellow Miata owner and he blogs too. His blog post are sporadic, but that is fine because when he does post it is worth the read. Unlike here where I post everyday because I like the sound of my typing. I recognized his name and his photo, so I became Andrew’s newest friend. So I went to Andrew’s page and I was his third friend (which I consider a great honor considering we haven’t actually met in person) and he is so new, his little progress bar was barely filled in from the left.*

*Of course it might fill in from the right and Andrew is making great strides in his quest to be a Facebook Maven, I just don’t know. If only there was a book that explained things.

So good luck with conquering Facebook Andrew, I hope my being your friend helps you fill your progress bar. I’ll check back up on you next time someone asks me to be their friend. I will still check the blog regular like…

Oh, yeah, the friend who got me to join just to look at his page, he bailed, took his page down. Rat Bastard.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 275